You Ain't Getting Corks. 5 Shoes You Can Cop Instead

Let's cut the bullshit. If you have a life and not well connected, your only real shot at copping the LeBron X Corks are a bunch of random lotteries and Nikestore. Face it, you aren't getting them shits. and that's okay. You'll live. You can still enjoy your weekend and, most importantly, you can still cop some great shoes for a fraction of what you'll have to spend to cop the Corks.

Here are five great shoes that you can pick up right now without having to pay more than retail.

5. Nike Air Max 90 Engineered Mesh

The engineered mesh Air Max collection is being slept on. Y'all better wake the fuck up. I love these two colorways and you can find them both in most sizes on nikestore.com. Retail is $120 and shipping is free if you have a nikestore account. You can also pick these up in the classic Infrared colorway at your local Footlocker or Champs. Treat yourself.

4. New Balance 574 "Year of The Snake"

MANNNNN LISTEN! I have these joints and they look just as dope in person, better even. You can cop most sizes here and use code GET4YOU at checkout to get them for about $90 shipped depending on your state's sales tax. Quit fucking around and cop these. Fuck you need Corks for anyway?

3. Nike Zoom Jet Turf 97 Retro

This is Brett Favre in his prime.

This is the shoe that Favre was rocking back in the day before he could text dick picks. This is the shoe he wore when he had to take his dick pics with a polaroid camera and send them shits to broads via the US Postal Service.

This shoe is a classic. You can cop them right now at Eastbay. Use code IPEB3246 at checkout to get 20% off and get them for around $120 shipped.

2. Nike Roshe Run QS "Split" Pack

If you follow this blog, you know I fucks with the Roshe Run heavy. I love this shoe, but I thought they have started to go stale with some of the newer colorways, but these are amazing. I know some overseas sites are already selling them, but these will pop up at your local boutiques, Niketowns, and Nikestore.com for the usual Roshe box price of $70. Make some calls, do some research and these should be an easy cop while everyone is beasting for the Corks.

1. Nike Flyknit Lunar 1

The Flyknit was one of my three favorite releases from last year and these are even better. The lunarlon platform is incredibly comfortable and these are an easy cop everywhere. Eastbay, Nikestore, Finishline, Footlocker, and all of those sites physical shops are carrying these for $160. Price point is a bit high, but you jabronies pay that for Jordan retros made out of synthetic foreskin leather. 

You can also wait on these to see if they go on sale, or wait until you can use discount codes online if the $160 is too high for you.

Cop a pair. You won't be sorry.

There are plenty of dope, drama free options other than these that you can cop this weekend. I know you all want Corks and I wish you all the best of luck in copping them. But let's be real, you ain't copping those shits.

Fatkidsocialclub.com YouTube Channel

When I started this blog I felt like the sneaker community was in a state of disarray. Overhyped shoes, diminishing quality, and higher demand have made being into sneakers much more difficult and less enjoyable for a large portion of the community.

I've always wanted to feature other members of the community that share the same kind of ethics that I do when it comes to kicks. One of these people is the homie @basedlarock. He has been putting up quality content over on his blog fatkidsocialclub.com. If you're into sneakers, video games, and just random shit dudes tend to like, then you owe it to yourself to peep his blog.

Based has now started a YouTube channel. He currently has only two vids and neither of them are groundbreaking but he is one of the good guys when it comes to this sneaker thing, He is always down to look out, cops what he likes, and understands the value of building relationships. These are all things that I also stand for, which is why I'm sharing his vids.

I'm certainly not sharing this shit so you can watch this Irv Gotti-looking ass dude burp and talk about Chipotle. There are some real gems beneath the randomness. And knowing Based, the YouTube content will only improve over time. Salute to the homie for putting himself out there and speaking his mind. Peep the vid below:

6 Reasons Why Reebok Stays Losing

When I was growing up, Reebok was a worthy adversary to the almighty Nike when it came to sneakers and apparel. They found ways to keep up with Nike in terms of innovation (Pump, Hexalite, DMX) and style (Kamikaze, Shaq Attaq, Questions, etc).

However, since the turn of the century, Reebok has had quite the fall from sneaker grace. I never expect any brand to go toe to toe with Nike/Jordan forever, but I do expect competitors to find their niche and maintain a level of success the way Adidas and New Balance have. Reebok has tried gimmick after gimmick in trying to out do Nike and now they've dug themselves a hole that they may never climb out of.

Reebok is a struggle brand. Here are six reasons why:

6. Bad Storytelling/Execution

Pictured above is the Reebok Kamikaze retro in the Sonics and Thunder colorways. I get that Shawn Kemp played for the Sonics and that the Sonics moved to Seattle and became the Thunder. I like the effort to tell a story, much like the way Nike/Jordan does with countless releases. Memories and stories sell shoes more than the shoes do themselves in today's sneaker world. However, the execution on these non OG colorways is FUCKING ATROCIOUS.

 (Update: 3/23/13: I take back everything I said about the Sonics colorway above being trash. This pic doesn't do the shoe justice. You can't tell that there is a rain drop effect on the green portions of the upper that looks insane in person. You also can't really see the yellow speckles on the midsole or the nice texture of the white leather on the upper. This is a great shoe. That Thunder colorway is still absolute trash though.)

They butchered the Shaqnosis with a "Orlando vs. Miami" pack as well:

The stories are lazy, at best, and the execution is just awful. Enough about these, on to the next issue.

5. The ZigTech Bust

John Wall was a huge signing for Reebok when he came out of Kentucky as the top pick in the NBA draft. They had plans for a signature line but for his rookie season they had him be the face for Reebok Basketball and their new ZigTech basketball line. These shoes were not only hideous, but many suspect that they've helped cause some of the injuries that have hindered Wall's promising, career. 

Reebok went all in with the ZigTech. The brand also had Chad Ochocinco as the face of the ZigTech training shoe... 

The ZigTech hoops shoe was such a colossal bust that Reebok has rebooted their entire performance basketball line and let Wall join Adidas while Reebok basketball goes on an indefinite hiatus. 

4. No One Gives A Fuck About Tyga And Swizz Beatz

I kind of get why Reebok brought Swizz Beatz on board. He was their answer to Nike working with Kanye West. Swizz is basically a poor homeless man's Kanye to Reebok. In any case, he deserves some props if he's the one that convinced them to finally retro some of their classic 90s Basketball designs. Everything else he's done, however, has been complete trash.

And I still can't fathom how you give up on making performance basketball shoes, and then turn around and give a signature shoe to FUCKING TYGA! Look at this trash:

These shits look like lego man shoes. Is Tyga the first weed carrier/rapper to get his own signature shoe? Birdman Lugz and Game's 310 Hurricanes were better than this bullshit.

People don't even download Tyga's music for free, so why would they buy his sorry ass shoe?

3. No New Hoops Shoes = No Future Retros

Since Reebok is currently out of the performance hoops biz and they haven't had a retro worthy basketball shoe since the Answer IV (which are currently sitting on shelves everywhere), they have about a ten year window where they didn't produce a single shoe that they can retro. 

Nike, Jordan, and Adidas have made a killing off of retros because they have continuously produced quality shoes over the years. The well has been dry for Reebok and in a year or two they'll be in desperate need of a real brand ambassador and a classic design in order to continue the momentum that their recent retro binge has created.

2. Losing The Exclusive NFL License to Nike and New Era

I have no concrete numbers, but I think it's a safe bet to say that the vast majority of Reebok's apparel sales came from their exclusive licensing deal with the NFL. As soon as Nike and New Era took over in April, they hit the ground running. They brought fresh ideas, designs, and marketing strategies that Reebok was sorely lacking in. The gap between Nike and Reebok will only become more apparent as Nike begins to overhaul some of the poorly designed team uniforms that were made by Reebok (Cardinals, Vikings) and update some of their pre-Reebok designs (Broncos, Buccaneers) that Reebok was too lazy to change during their tenure as the NFL's exclusive license holder. You can also see Nike's superiority in how much better they have integrated cleats and gloves into team uniforms.

1. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?

This is Reebok's signature shoe for MMA Fighter, Rampage Jackson. This is the worst shit ever. First off, you discontinue basketball shoes to make a shoe for an athlete who plays a sport where you don't wear shoes? What the fuck?! I get that these are trainers, but that doesn't change the fact that the way athlete's shoes get sold is consumers seeing the athlete wear them in action. 

I guess this shoe could be a success if Reebok's target market is dudes who wear Affliction shirts and beat their girlfriends, but they aren't going to attract the common consumer or sneakerheads with this bullshit. 

It makes me sad to see Reebok struggling so hard. I hope that they are able to hire some fresh thinkers and up and coming designers to kickstart the brand. Maybe even poach someone from Nike with a huge offer. I'm down for anything that keeps Reebok from putting this kind of garbage out.

When Limited Actually Means Infinite

So yesterday I did a post on my experience with New Balance's custom program,  I copped two pairs, so as you would imagine, I spent a good amount of time experimenting with the colors and materials that are available.

As of late, I've noticed a lot of boutiques have been doing NB collabs using the 574, which is dope to me because I love 574s. However, I didn't think it was very dope when I realized that every single one of these collabs can be made on New Balance's website. These stores have all passed these off as "Very Limited" usually to 50 pairs, which is unfortunate because I've already seen some of these pairs going for double retail on forums, eBay, etc. I'm not that mad at the stores because they're all charging about what it costs to make your own pair on NewBalance.com. 

My beef is how there will surely be someone who overpays for a pair on the secondary market. Fuck that. I know some will argue that if someone overpays it's their own fault for not being informed, which is somewhat true, but that doesn't make this whole thing any less shitty. So that's why I'm writing this post, so if any of you were thinking about copping any of these, you can just build your own through New Balance. 

Walters x DJ Mars "Holiday Pack"

I fucks with these. Love getting into the holiday spirit. I like supporting local shops, but fuck these dudes out here trying to sell these joints for $200+

and this fuckyberg too (shouts to @Dallas_Penn )...

I encourage all of you to go troll these two if you wish to do so. Here's a screen cap of how you can make them both on NewBalance.com :

Fuck that limited bullshit. If you copped at Walter's in ATL to support local shops, salute. If you copped to flip...

Other stores that have done the same shit recently include Ubiq in Philly:

Concepts in Boston with their "Home Vs Away" Pack:

And Kith with their Grand Opening 574s as well as their USA pack:

All of these are dope shoes in their own right and props to whoever designed each pair. I just with these shops would be upfront about the origins of these shoes and not pass them off as collabs, because that only fuels the hype machine that these resellers try to turn a profit off of. 

That's all I got on the topic, just doing my part so that we all stay informed and don't get caught out here overpaying for kicks.

Peace.

Nike Solarsoft Rache Woven

WOOO SHIT! MOTHERFUCKER GOT DAMN!

If you know me or have followed this blog at all, you know I'm a sucker for weird woven shit like this that incorporates Nike's more innovative tech.

This is that wake up early and jog on the beach with your dog type of shoe. I fucks with this.

This is that doin' the dougie on the playa in a dust storm at Burning Man type of shoe. I'm bout it.

Matter of fact, this is that naked high five to the moon (pause) at Burning Man type of shoe. Gotta cop.

In case you haven't noticed, I like weird woven shoes almost as much as I like Burning Man.

FUCK YEAH!!!

The New Balance Custom 574 Review

I recently ordered two pairs of custom New Balance 574s from newbalance.com and I could not be happier with the results. For those of you who aren't familiar, New Balance offers a custom program (just like Nike iD) on their website for two classic models, the 574 and 993.

New Balance's customs have a great selection of colors and are priced very well. The 574s are $114.95 and the 993s are $174.95. You can almost always find a 10% off + free shipping discount code to get these down to about $110 shipped including tax.

I ordered two pairs on Tuesday, Nov. 20th and both pairs arrived by Tuesday Dec. 4th. This is an incredibly quick turnaround when you consider that I live in California (They're made in Massachusetts), and that NB and UPS are both obviously closed for Thanksgiving. 

Right off the bat, I was impressed with the quality. The suede and mesh are on par with the materials you see on many New Balance collabs. The leather was also high quality, worlds better than what we're used to seeing on Jordan retros. The craftsmanship is also great. The stitching is all on point, no glue stains, and the shape is perfect. Overall, the quality is much greater than what anyone in the sneaker community expects to get for $110 these days, which is refreshing. 

I'm a huge fan of Nike iD, but this is a better product. I've never had any real quality issues with Nike iDs, but the price point + 6 weeks wait are too much to deal with when a competitor is offering a similar experience with better quality and shorter wait time. I must reiterate that the quality on all of my Nike iDs has been very nice and I'm always very pleased, I'm just trying to state how New Balance goes above and beyond on these customs.

Enough about the experience, let's get to the kicks and what inspired them:

The New Balance 574 Custom "Weekend @ Bernie's"

These were inspired by the movie "Weekend At Bernie's". I wanted to make a shoe based on Bernie's outfit because I felt like I could use another summer-type sneaker that's more toned down than all the bright ass Nike Basketball stuff I like to rock in the summer. For those of you that are unfamiliar with "Weekend At Bernie's", cheek it out. Shit is hilarious. I loved it as a kid. Here's a pic of Bernie and the fit that inspired the colors on this shoe:

New Balance 574 Custom "Ultra Travolta"

"So yeah, at the Grammys I went Ultra Travolta. Yeah that tuxedo might have been a little guido."- Kanye West on "The Glory"

That lyric set up my frame of mind when designing this pair. I just wanted to show out with these and give them a colorway and feel you don't typically get with New Balances. As far as the colorblocking goes, I was inspired by the "Red Devil" 670:

I didn't want my shoe to be a total ripoff of the "Red Devils" so I thought to go with the black midsole and add some more colors to the mix. Every sneakerhead has a ton of black/red shoes just off Js alone, so I chose to add some green and a touch of yellow to give them that Gucci colorway. I went with Green and yellow because I'm a big fan of the 24 Kilates Asics Gel Saga:

I love that shoe, but it's one of those pairs that I don't love enough to pay the silly resell prices for.

So far, I've rocked the Ultra Travoltas and they're incredibly comfy. I really love both pairs and I highly recommend customizing your own pair. You won't be disappointed.

LeBron X iD: Substance Beyond Southbeach

The LeBron X iD might be the most popular model on Nike iD right now for one reason and one reason only; The ability to create a South Beach LeBron X.

The first wave of LeBron X iDs are starting to pop up online and I'd guess that at least 60% of the photos I've seen are of South Beach inspired colorways. People can order whatever they like, but as a huge fan of Nike iDs, people all ordering a colorway we might see later is lame to me. Nike iDs are meant to be an expression of individuality, so to see a whole bunch of people with the same iDs makes me really question where sneaker culture is headed.

It's a shame that the South Beach colorway has gotten so much hype because it has overshadowed the fact that the LeBron X iD has some excellent options that lend themselves to some really great colorways.

I've been tinkering with plenty of colorways inspired by past LeBrons, other classic sneakers, and other random inspirations. Here's what I came up with:

LeBron X iD "Red Carpet"

LeBron X iD "Entourage"

LeBron X iD "Hardwood Classics/Knicks"

LeBron X iD "Space Jam"

LeBron X iD "Miami Hurricanes"

LeBron X iD "Mardi Gras"

As you can see, I've wasted plenty of time and I still haven't been able to pull the trigger. However, a fellow sneakerhead who I know through a sneaker related Facebook group did order and received his pair this week. Here are some pics of his iDs:

These beauties were made by the homie Sergio Ortiz. He was inspired by a pair of Nike Air Trainers that he was wearing when he designed them, as well as the Miami Nights LeBron 9. He said that he was very happy with the product. He mentioned that the quality was on point and that his only complaint would be the speckles on the midsole. Apparently the finish on the speckles is not glossy and has a sloppier look, as if they actually slashed paint on them. 

Sergio also mentioned that the turnaround time from order to delivery was only four weeks, which is pretty good when it comes to Nike iDs. 

If you have any questions for Sergio or simply wanna give him props for the dope iDs, you can hit him up on Instagram at eeks323, or on twitter: @urewacktoo .

Much thanks to Sergio for sharing his iDs. I'm strongly considering ordering one of the designs that I posted so feel free to hit me on twitter @juicemanji and let me know what you think, or better yet hit me with any of your Nike iD creations. I love seeing other folks iDs, so never hesitate to hit me up.

Thanks for reading and I appreciate the support.

Shouts to the Kicks-RX fam and $FU.